Institutional and programmatic effectiveness in promoting self-authorship requires an understanding of how to assess self-authorship. (Contains 2 tables.)

Innovative educational practice reveals the secrets to enabling complex learning and self-authorship.

The development of intellectually challenging and personally supportive faculty-student relationships outside of formal learning contexts is crucial to excellence in honors-level education, and can be fostered through a faculty advising and mentor program. (MSE)

Research and theory suggest that college students' motivation to learn is related to their epistemological beliefs. Faculty can promote student motivation by designing learning activities that facilitate student development of more sophisticated epistemological beliefs. Faculty developers can assist in this by giving special attention to the…

Issues of instructional effectiveness need to be examined at three levels: (1) the context in which instruction takes place and the rewards provided for teaching well; (2) comparison of teaching paradigms; and (3) the knowledge to be learned and the skills that are part of the learning process. (MSE)

Eckerd College's Academy of Senior Professionals brings together retired and semi-retired high-achieving professionals for continuing intellectual and cultural stimulation and to work singly or in groups on projects of personal and social significance. The program includes lectures, colloquia, forums, social and recreational events, and individual…

Honors programs are reviewed that use diversity in presentation, approach, and educational context to foster intellectual development. They individualize instruction and encourage students both to form partnerships in learning and to develop their own strategies for integrating information. (MSE)

College student self-evaluations can assist in institutional outcomes assessment by helping educators understand the content, context, and process of learning at both individual and institutional levels, and from the perspective of either research or assessment. Currently, self-assessment is used primarily in evaluating broad learning outcomes,…

Modeled on the county medical society and bar association, the University of Pennsylvania's Academic Alliances Program brings together teachers from all levels of the educational system. Faculty members from the schools and colleges in a local area, who teach the same academic discipline, are drawn together. (Author/MLW)

Discusses what has been learned about students in college learning communities, and their progress and problems in the programs. Addresses topics including student attitudes and characteristics, retention, achievement, intellectual development, what students value about the communities, developmental changes occurring during the program, and life…

In an integrated four-course sequence, Colorado School of Mines engineering and science students work on open-ended, real-world problems prepared by government agencies and private companies that interact as clients with student teams. The program fosters intellectual development, teamwork, and communication skills. (Author/MSE)